Once you have designed your sticker and cut it on the vinyl cutter, the next step is to weed out the parts you don't want and leave the parts that you do want.

Supplies you'll need:

A print of your image in black and white

A piece of vinyl with your design cut

A sharp tool, like a paperclip with its' point cut at an angle or a sharp pointed pair of tweezers work fine

Maybe you will need a utility or Xacto knife

A piece of scrap paper to put the bits on

Some masking tape or other transfer tape

Weed the sticker:

Set up your supplies, tools and workspace

Look at the print of your image and see where it is black and where it is white

Decide whether you are going to remove the black areas or the white areas

     You can take the black out of the vinyl or the white, but taking both usually doesn't work.

With the sharp tool, pick out the white or the black parts of the image

Work your way through the image until you have removed all of the white or all of the black parts of the image

If there is a border on the image, you may want to take it off or leave it.

Applying transfer tape:

Now that your image is weeded, you will need to get it off of the backing.

Really simple designs sometimes don't need this step, but it will almost always be easier to apply the sticker this way

Cut a piece of masking tape or transfer tape that is a bit bigger than your image

Place the masking tape or transfer tape over your weeded image

Rub it onto the sticker with the flats of your nails, credit card, drivers' license or school id (something kind of hard)

Peel the tape a bit and make sure that the sticker is peeling up with the tape

If it is coming up with the tape, then you are all set

Applying the sticker:

Your sticker will adhere on most any slick surface, wood, metal, plastic, etc. Stickers won't stay on fabrics and some rubbberized surfaces.

The area should be clean.

     If it is dirty, the sticker will be bumpy. If it is oily, then it won't stay put.

Peel the white paper backing off. Your sticker should stay on the tape.

Position it over the area you want to apply it on.

Starting at one end, press the sticker in place.

Rub it with something kind of hard like the flats of your fingernails.

Peel off the transfer tape.

     If it does not stick, try rubbing it into place. If it still won't stick, then the surface is probably not suitable.

Your sticker is in place. Depending on wear and tear, the sticker may last weeks, months or years.

Removing the sticker:

If you don't want the sticker in place any more, you may want to remove it.

You can try peeling it off. Sometimes this works, sometimes parts get left behind.

Hairdryers are a good way to get stickers off.

Apply heat to the sticker, with the hair dryer.

When the vinyl softens, peel it off, keeping the heat on it until it is off the surface.

Clean up the surface with rubbing alcohol or acetone. Be careful you don't damage the surface with the chemicals.